The True Costs Of Slow Fashion….. What You Can Get For £1

Last week I was shocked by the news that a particular fast fashion brand was celebrating 10 years of empowering women with a £1 bikini…

Even though the company said they were making a loss per bikini sold, it still doesn’t justify that they are normalising clothing at this eye-watering price, while promoting fast and disposable fashion.

Secondly, how does this empower women?
All I could think of were the women at the factory, behind a sewing machine with perhaps a minimum wage – let alone a living wage, or the women who are trying to feed and wash their families, while fast fashion manufacturers polluted their local rivers.

Why was I so shocked? With my previous experience working in high end and high street brands before starting GS, I have a pretty good idea to how much one bikini costs to make. Even with high volume in the Far East I still couldn’t work out the maths – companies should not be allowed to have “lost leaders” as this behaviour will not change consumers mind to making a more conscious and educated decision of what the purchase of a £1 bikini is doing to our planet.

My experience in the fashion industry left me with a bad taste.

I couldn’t believe how much wastage high street fashion created with excess orders, huge carbon footprints sending fabric and colour samples across the globe weekly on the next day service. All to create one garment that will be on trend for a month, then it is forgotten about, and the whole process continues…

This made me a question; there must be a better way, which led me on a journey to find British ethical manufacturers to create my brand with shared values of Slow Fashion, to make long lasting knitwear.

So how can we make a difference… vote with your purse!

We can all play a part in forcing the fashion industry to be more sustainable and ethical.
Choosing to buy and wear clothes from brands who embrace sustainable practices, who are transparent with their sourcing and manufacturing whilst celebrating creative and innovative ways to reuse, renew recycle and reduce.

From the first cone of yarn to the logistics of how GS knitwear reaches my customers, every step of the GS journey considered.
Supporting artisan skills and local communities, only sourcing sustainable and ethical yarns, to repurpose, recycle and reduce at every step of the GS journey.

These have been my values throughout the last 5 years, yet I am continuously working on improving, giving new life and purpose to something that the fast fashion industry would consider only fit for landfill.

So following my shock last week, I shared on Instagram what £1 would get you in the world of GS, sharing transparency in my manufacturing.
This is what you would great for £1 below, either….

5 woven labels

A knitted cuff of a sock

5g cashmere yarn

28g lambswool yarn

40 sec Hand Intarsia knitting

2 minutes of Industrial knitting

2.4 minutes of linking

I would love to hear any feedback you may have, and if this is a topic you would like me to discuss further. I feel this is an incredibly important issue and I wanted to share with you what I am trying to do to help improve the climate crisis, just in case this helps inspire others.